Hal Stanley opened his session at ELEVATE 2026, the customer value event Ecosystems co-hosts with TSIA, with five price lines: $185 an hour for a consultant, $45 per user per month, 10 cents per AI action, $2 per resolved case, and 15% of verified savings. Then he asked the room which of them counted as outcome-based pricing, and the hands were split.
"When the words get fuzzy, the offers get fuzzy. When the offers get fuzzy, the contract gets fuzzy. When the contract gets fuzzy, the CFO comes to visit you, and that's bad," he said.
Hal is Vice President, Offering Management Research and Advisory at TSIA, where he studies how technology companies package and price their offers. His examples in The True Spectrum of Outcome-Based Pricing ran from consulting hours and managed services to per-user subscriptions and AI credits. "I'm not here to tell you theoretically what pricing is. I'm here to tell you how to make money," he said.
The Four Ways to Get Paid
Hal sorts every price into four buckets, and only the last two count as outcome-based pricing.
| Model |
What you're paid for |
Example |
| Traditional |
Access or time: the hour, the seat, a defined scope |
$185 an hour, $45 per user per month |
| Consumption |
Activity, whether or not it solves the problem |
10 cents per AI action |
| Outcome-aligned |
A finished unit of work you measured and controlled |
$2 per resolved case |
| Pay for results |
The customer's financial result |
15% of verified savings |
The difference between the last two is control. A managed services provider that earns a bonus for beating its time-to-restore target controls that number. A vendor that only gets paid if the customer's OpEx drops 30% doesn't. "Good luck getting your CFO to sign that one," Hal said. When someone says outcome-based pricing, he suggested asking which one they mean. Usually, it's outcome-aligned.
How Do You Tell Which Model You're Selling?
Ask three questions in order, and stop at the first yes.
- Does your fee move because the customer's financial result moved? Then it's pay for results. Hal said those deals are rare in tech.
- Is your fee set by time, access, a defined scope, or a prepaid block of credits? Then it's traditional, which Hal called "most of the money in this room."
- Does the unit count effort, or a finished job? Effort, like 10 cents per AI action, is consumption. A finished job, like a completed case, is outcome-aligned.
Cost per page shows how the same price can land in different buckets. Sold to an office that would love to print fewer pages, it's consumption. Sold to a print shop that wants page counts to go up, it's outcome-aligned, because the fee moves with the customer's own goal.
Why the Pressure on Services Pricing Is Growing
Customers are asking why services cost the same when AI does part of the work. In every interview Hal does, he said, leaders tell him they're hearing the same question: "If AI is doing half the work, why are your services prices the same as they were before?"
Most services pricing hasn't changed yet. About 97% of professional services engagement pricing at tech companies is still fixed price or time and materials, according to TSIA's 2026 PS benchmark. Software has moved faster toward hybrid pricing, a subscription base plus a usage element, and Hal expects services pricing to follow.
Hal pointed to Salesforce, which in under a year tried $2 a conversation, then 10 cents an action, then added per-user licensing back. "Moving from traditional to anything else is going to be painful, and the price is going to change on us," he said. "We need to be ready to measure what we do."
Outcome-Based Pricing Can Fit Inside the Contracts You Already Have
Outcome-aligned pricing doesn't need a new contract structure. Hal's managed services example: a restore-to-service offer billed at $10,000 a month, $12,000 when the provider beats its time-to-restore target, and $8,000 when it misses. "You do not have to have a new contract for that," he said, and you don't have to model the customer's revenue or margin either.
The outcome-aligned deals he's seeing use the usual paperwork, with a little more in each piece. The order form may gain a variable line. The SLA schedule holds what you control and commit to. A governance scorecard gives both sides a shared source of truth. And a value statement explains how the work relates to the customer's P&L, "but you never warrant that."
Should You Move to Pay for Results?
Most companies shouldn't move to pay for results yet. "Most of you in this room should not be doing pay for results, not this year," Hal said, and for most of a company's book, maybe never.
Hal's slide lists five conditions that pay for results needs at once: the buyer sits in finance, the result is attributable to you, the contract carries it, someone holds the risk, and you can say no to work. Saying no is hard in services. If you sell premium support, Hal said, "you can't say no to your customer." So is attribution: "When it comes time to count the money, everyone takes credit." Even insurers that warrant AI performance exclude anything the vendor can't control. "Don't get distracted by the sexy thing," he said.
He also warned against outcome washing: implying your fee is tied to a result more closely than it really is. "Outcome-based selling is beautiful. Do that. But that's selling," Hal said. The trouble starts when a vendor sells credits while suggesting the customer will save 30%, and procurement checks that claim against its own measurement. "Outcome washing is going to get you in a lot of trouble," he said.
Keep the Base and Add a Measurable Layer
Protect the revenue you have, then add an outcome-aligned line on top. Hal advised against changing the price model on a subscription that's already under price pressure. Anchor it where you can. Then look for a line that moves, such as a data insights line, measure its consumption, and, once you can prove the result, charge for the outcome.
If you're already outcome-aligned, prove it. Capture the promise in a record, get it into the system, and measure the rate at which you keep your promises. Hal calls that rate VRR: verified realized value divided by the value promised in the sale.
Hal said this takes maturity in three places: making the offer, bringing in the revenue, and delivering the work. His slide paired each with what TSIA and Ecosystems bring. For Ecosystems, that's the value assessments and business cases at the sale, and the system of record for the value delivered, where the promise is captured as data and measured after go-live.
"Most of your opportunity is in pricing the work you control and proving it well enough that both sides trust the number."
— Hal Stanley, Vice President, Offering Management Research and Advisory at TSIA
Watch the Session
Watch Hal's full ELEVATE 2026 session to see his pricing examples on screen. Then read our post on AI economics, and our ELEVATE 2026 recap, Closing the Promise Gap.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is outcome-based pricing?
Outcome-based pricing ties what a customer pays to a result. TSIA's Hal Stanley splits it into two models. Outcome-aligned pricing charges for a finished unit of work the vendor controls and measures, such as a resolved case. Pay for results ties the fee to the customer's financial result, such as a share of verified savings.
What is the difference between outcome-aligned pricing and pay for results?
The difference is control. With outcome-aligned pricing, the vendor is paid for work it controls and can measure, like beating a time-to-restore target in a managed service. With pay for results, the fee moves with the customer's P&L, such as a drop in operating expense. Hal Stanley said pay for results is rare in tech and needs five conditions to hold at once.
Is consumption pricing outcome-based?
Usually not. Consumption pricing charges for activity, such as 10 cents per AI action, whether or not the activity solves the customer's problem. It becomes outcome-aligned when the unit matches the customer's goal. Hal Stanley's example is cost per page: consumption for an office that wants to print less, outcome-aligned for a print shop that wants to print more.
What is outcome washing?
Outcome washing is implying that your fee is tied to a customer outcome more closely than it is, for example selling credits while suggesting the customer will save 30%. TSIA's Hal Stanley said procurement teams are starting to check those claims against their own measurements, so be clear about what the customer is billed on.
Keep the Conversation Going
The conversations that started at ELEVATE continue all year with peers who are solving the same problems. Join the Customer Value Community to be part of them. And if you'd like to see how teams use Ecosystems to record the value they promise and deliver, so both sides trust the number, book a demo.
